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Author: Prashant Swami

THE ALL-NEW TENDER CONSULTANTS!

Posted on by Prashant Swami

THE ALL-NEW TENDER CONSULTANTS!

We feel that the time has come to restructure our current provision and are proud to offer you some brand-new services. These will not only make tendering a whole lot easier in your sector but will help maximise your success at securing those all-important contract opportunities. This is the all-new and improved TENDER CONSULTANTS service.

Our Growth Director/Founder, Jill Hudson, stated “since inception we have been continually assessing our customer’s needs and have developed various platforms where customers receive daily contract opportunity bulletins that are specific to their service sector. As a forward thinking and rapidly-growing company, we don’t ONLY want to support our customers with sourcing relevant and interesting opportunities, but help them through the next stages in order to turn that interest into a WIN!”

Jill has over 16-years’ experience managing a range of tenders across a whole load of industries. She is joined by our new Procurement/Content Manager, Dan, who has built his early career helping multiple SMEs and large corporations with ongoing tender writing and procurement support.

dan&jill

Dan said “after carefully analysing the core customers across our industry-platforms, we have created multiple services that are beneficial to all. No matter the work. No matter the sector. We have got you covered!”

Our NEW provision includes:

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TENDER READY – HELPING YOU PREPARE

Our 4 WEEK programme allows us to cover all the basics of procurement and create tender-specific content for your business in order to prepare you for the world of tendering.

 

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TENDER IMPROVEMENT – HELPING YOU TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Our 2 WEEK programme is all about focusing on what you’re currently doing and making sure we implement the necessary improvements that will allow your tendering approach to become more refined and successful!

 

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TENDER WRITING – HELPING YOU FILL THE SKILLS GAP

Due to common requests we’ve had from customers, we’ve launched a Tender Writing service. Mainly for those businesses who are incredibly busy but understand the importance of constant development, as well as those who simply can’t seem to make any progress and see any success from their efforts.

 

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TENDER MENTOR – HELPING YOU TO THE FINISH LINE

Our Tender Mentor service will allow you to tackle that all-important tender and receive professional and constructive feedback from our procurement specialists. This is a bespoke service starting at incredibly low rates to guide and review them all-important tenders prior to submission.

 

TENDER VLE – HELPING YOU UNDERSTAND

COMING SOON IN MAY 2018
This will include a video-based e-learning platform that allows YOU to get up to speed with how tendering works. And how YOU can maximise contract opportunities by developing knowledge further in this field. It’s more important now than ever to develop a skillset around procurement-based products and approaches. TENDER VLE is here to help you do just that!

TENDER BANK – HELPING YOU ORGANISE

COMING SOON IN 2019
Those who tender will know how time-consuming it can be. TENDER BANK will reduce this time considerably by creating a central place to save tender related information in an organised fashion. This will see an innovative tool which allows for tender documents to be created online. It will ensure you don’t miss any important aspect that could be hindering your tendering success.

WATCH THIS SPACE!

GET IN TOUCH TODAY IF YOU WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR TENDERING EFFORTS!

WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU SUCCEED!

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

In Development – Tender VLE

Posted on by Prashant Swami

In Development – Tender VLE

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have a one-stop shop for all your tender needs?

How about a shop that doesn’t charge and provides access to ongoing training, advice and guidance weekly?

3 words: LOOK NO FURTHER.

Here at Hudson Procurement Group we are proud to announce the launch of Tender VLE. 

A fantastic and engaging virtual learning environment which provides ongoing support, both with bid writing and procurement, TO EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, FOR FREE!

With hundreds of subscribers already established on our innovative sector-specific platforms, one thing has become well known to us. This is that the majority of our customers require additional tender support from time to time. Our platforms currently allow customers to view opportunities that are not only specific to their sector, but specific to their exact service. We do this through daily bulletins manually created by internal staff, meaning opportunities are scoured across the country daily to ensure exact matches are ALWAYS listed.

This is proving extremely successful and highly desired by all clients. But, now it’s time to start acting on these opportunities and dealing with what most would describe as the ‘pain of procurement’ – writing a tender!

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ENTER Tender VLE

Tender VLE is a video-based e-learning platform that allows YOU to get up to speed with how tendering works. It also runs you through how YOU can maximise these opportunities by developing knowledge further in this field. It’s important now, more than ever to develop your skillset and embrace tendering rather than shy away from it.

We understand that video content is at its height, and there is a surprisingly low amount of knowledge-based tendering information available online. For these reasons, we will be using highly engaging video material in all learning sessions. This will be accompanied by a written ‘how-to’ guides so that we cater for the masses.

We’ve invested in the development of this product because our customers need it. We act quickly on customer requests and believe the easiest way to share knowledge far and wide is via online video master-classes. We’ve also decided to provide this content for free!

We won’t charge to grow and develop the UK economy. We hope that within the next couple of years we are able to develop an accredited version of our training to widen opportunity routes into writing for businesses, allowing a structured landscape for tender education.

Our launch date is May 2018 – be prepared to grow, develop and stand out with the best tender training available!

Tendering doesn’t need to be complicated!

Posted on by Prashant Swami

Tendering doesn’t need to be complicated 

We’ll repeat … TENDERING DOES NOT NEED TO BE COMPLICATED!

There are so many factors to why people assume tendering is overly-complicated. This is usually down to the amount of time it takes to complete and how mundane the process is. Yes – there may be 5000 pages of specification but hey … who doesn’t love a bit of light reading!

The three things you MUST possess when tendering is PERSISTENCE, PLANNING & POSITIVITY!

Let’s get past the moaning and downtrodden attitude to how ‘complicated’ tendering is and break the process down to show how easy it actually is!

Please see our previous blog ‘the complicated tender process’ detailing a summary of the general tender process for added guidance.

In order to de-complicate the situation – let’s look at a few things that are deemed complicated when tendering. This includes:

1. Terminology

The number of abbreviations flying around is becoming increasingly common in the procurement world. Terms like RFQs, ITTs, PQQs, DPS, and RFPs seems like they are only used to confuse us into a state of literary decline. Let’s simplify:

PQQ Pre-qualification questionnaire – this is usually a stage-1 questionnaire asking about specific company details like insurance and similar contracts you’ve worked on etc., along with simple ‘yes and no’ questions making sure you’re not fraudulent and you pay your taxes etc.
ITT Invitation to Tender – we can sometimes forget out the PQQ and jump straight into an ITT, which is usually where your quality and costing ratio comes in. This is where you price the job at hand and answer several technical questions about your ability to undergo the work in accordance with usually detailed specification/scopes of work.
RFP Request for Proposal – very similar to an ITT where cost and quality are assessed however RFPs are used in situations where the client either can’t – or doesn’t want to – define the scope of work up front to an adequate level of detail, meaning you need to be very descriptive and state a clear proposal to what’s needed.
RFQ Request for Quotation – The RFQ is a lot like the Tender, however typically smaller in size and scope. They’re often more geared towards clients who are seeking pricing information for a defined scope of work or supply of materials or equipment. Detailed proposals are typically less often sought here.
Framework A Framework Agreement is an agreement between one or more businesses or organisations. If you enter into a framework agreement, usually you will be one of many suppliers contractually bound to deliver against buyer requirements.
DPS Dynamic Purchasing System – A DPS is similar to an electronic framework agreement, with two exceptions, new suppliers can join at any time and it is to be run as a completely electronic process. DPS is used exclusively by public sector organisations and can be considered as a ‘competitive supply chain’, where all chosen supply chain members regularly compete for work via ITTs and RFQs.

2. Opportunities

These are extremely broad with hundreds upon hundreds of opportunities released daily! Customers tend to wish to have one main platform to source the most relevant opportunities to grow their business. Wouldn’t that be great? Currently, opportunities are typically shared through typically problematic electronic algorithms across multiple platforms, either showing you irrelevant opportunities or no opportunities at all.

Keeping it simple – sign up with our industry-specific portals via Tender Connect to receive daily opportunities, sourced from the hundreds of UK tender portals. These are manually searched and published on a daily basis by a team of procurement-based staff, not computers. We are the first company to do this and the feedback we have is out of this world

3. Portals

There are thousands of online platforms, websites and communication systems that are evident across UK procurement. Some portals are outdated, complex and an all-around pain to navigate. Our team have used them all! Just make sure you know your key focus areas and process-knowledge for each website – these are working your way around:

  • Downloading all tender information;
  • Asking/monitoring clarification questions from other suppliers/the buyer;
  • Submitting the tender;

Every website should have a ‘help’ section – don’t be afraid to use it and/or contact the people who run it.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was one platform for everything? For every industry? For every buyer? WATCH THIS SPACE– we are working with national professionals to work on a user-friendly, affordable and globally accessible platform to condense UK procurement in a one-stop-shop fashion.

4. Writing

Not everyone can write in an engaging, concise and straightforward manner. It’s easy telling people what you do, but to put that on paper in a professional way, covering set criteria, is a major hassle for a lot of business developers. Don’t get stressed with it. Just remember 3 key focus areas when writing a response to any question:

  • WHAT: what you have done or what you are going to do?
  • HOW: how you have done this (methodology) or how you are going to do it?
  • EVIDENCE: hard-hitting proof that you have done it before- experience/ evidence is key!

We offer Bid Writing services, using our procurement experts with over 25 combined years’ experience of writing tenders. Check us out – Tender Consultants.

5. Losing

What is the point of spending all this time on a bid for it to lose and you to go back hating the process, hating the tender and subsequently hating life itself! Don’t fret – USE THE FEEDBACK! If you didn’t win the work because you lack ISO accreditations (for e.g.)– you know what to do! As part of our provision at Tender Consultants, we have a tender readiness programme that you can use to make sure you maintain a good chance of securing key pieces of work.

All procurement-based processes that most people find difficult/complicated are exactly that because of the lack of understanding of key tender-management processes. We will be launching a FREE training environment (Tender VLE) in May 2018, which focuses on everything tender and procurement based, including profound topics that will completely eradicate the notion that tendering and procurement is complicated.

Let’s leave them procurement pains behind!

We’re here to help you grow, develop and standout!

Tender Writing – HELP! I need somebody – HELP! not just anybody

Posted on by Prashant Swami

Tender Writing – HELP! I need somebody – HELP! Not just anybody

HELP! I need somebody – HELP! not just anybody

The number one mechanism that puts off business leaders and development executives from getting help with bidding for work- is the sheer prices that many consultants charge for their expertise and support. We all have received that email from some portal, inviting you to attend ‘Bid Writing Masterclasses’ in a swanky conference suite, usually a million miles away for around £100 per ticket per day.

There was nearly £171 Billion spent within the UK’s public procurement sector in the last year alone. Why should companies pay for help in order to access this money? Who wants to pay over the odds for some helpful guidance? – especially when there are various options available … FOR FREE!

Tender VLE

In May 2018, we will be launching Tender VLE, a highly innovative virtual learning environment (VLE), where we will be sharing regular masterclass videos across a diverse range of procurement topics, including support and guidance around tender readiness, bid management and pretty much every procurement practice you can think of. This will be broken into various knowledge strands so that people with the most limited knowledge and those with advanced knowledge can receive the best help and guidance to succeed. The best part of all this – is that it comes at no cost to the learner/viewer. All videos will be made publically available on our VLE and onto the likes of YouTube, allowing unlimited access to ALL.

Tender Consultants

Additional to this online support, another one of our business development platforms, Tender Consultants, works with you on a more personal level to ensure a helping hand is always there when needed. Currently, procurement is far from being easy. Our mission is to de-complicate the sector so it remains simple for all buyers and suppliers across the country. Our firm is different from other consultancies, as we offer free impartial advice on your procurement strategy. Subsequent to our advice, you can then decide what kind of support you need. Whether this be our Tender Readiness Assessment? Tender Writing Service? and/or Guide and Reviews? etc. All services on offer are accustomed to your needs, meaning we do not overcharge or maintain bulk rates. We offer more than affordable consultancy rates that remain specific to your requirements and will only enhance your chances of winning.

Our upcoming Tender Bank system, launching within the next year, will also provide customers with a one-stop-shop for all of their tender needs, including templates, pre-established responses that are tailored to your sector and varying policies.

In the meantime, we are happy to provide whatever support you need. Contact us for free advice and consultations on your tendering efforts. Let’s get you some of that £171 Billion up for grabs! Don’t just use anybody – use the right body! Use Hudson Procurement Group!

Believe you can and you WILL, Believe you can’t and you WON’T

Posted on by Prashant Swami

Believe you can and you WILL, Believe you can’t and you WON’T

You know what they say – believers are achievers!

Corny I know, but the principle DOES apply when tender writing. You can never just hit it and hope for the best – this isn’t snooker! Each piece of work you bid for should have been accurately assessed to make sure this is a good opportunity for your business (see our ‘to bid or not to bid’ blog for further information).

The point is, you have to go in fully prepped with the clear mindset of achieving this piece of work. If you are not fully confident that you can win the work, then don’t bid for it. Simple.

If you feel you are in with a good shot – then make sure any doubts or reservations are left at the door, as you don’t want these to be identified by the evaluator.

Remember to be descriptive, be assertive, but most importantly be positive!

You should:

  • use phrases like ‘We will …’ – no one cares you if you are attempting to do something – this is your piece of work – be confident and state you WILL deliver all that’s expected;
  • demonstrate your willingness to adapt, conform and collaborate with the buyer – always demonstrate further added value and what more you can do for the buyer – think of the positive effects this has socially and economically;
  • validate your company – describe not only what makes you different, but what makes you BETTER? Explain clearly why the buyer should choose you and not your competitors – why do YOU stand out?

You’ll find that if you’re below 80% sure to whether or not you should bid for the contract – this tends to show less confidence on paper. The better the opportunity that is right for you, the better your proposal will be projected. Unbeknownst to many, on a subconscious level, if we believe we are NOT destined to win the work, we will in many ways lag behind our competitors in that all-important tender.

Never go for any opportunity! Always go for the ones you believe in!

Get in touch with our bid writers today. We can help you believe what’s best for you!

Why Choose Hudson Procurement Group?

Posted on by Prashant Swami

 Why Choose Hudson Procurement Group?

  • What do you do exactly?
  • How does it all work?
  • Why should I choose you?

Although these questions are being asked less and less due to our growing presence online and current position in the procurement sector. We still want to show you some key traits of our provision and how we work FOR YOU!

We have recognised that across all businesses nationally, contract/tender opportunities are spread so wide that it takes time and unnecessary hassle to source the right prospects for your company. Even if the right ones come through from your many subscriptions on a range of procurement portals, this may be delayed by up to 5-10 days, along with some (if not all) opportunities having zero relevance to your organisation. This is because CPV codes* are being used incorrectly on a major scale by both buyers and suppliers. Some portals don’t offer the full range of CPV codes available and/or delay the release of key opportunities due to automatic processes.

*CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) Codes are used to differentiate, segment and classify contract opportunities so that your company can search and receive notifications about the opportunities aligned to your provision/offering.

With over 25 years’ experience and extensive knowledge of tender management and opportunity tracking, the creative and innovative specialists at Hudson Procurement Group is doing something that no other company is doing. We are MANUALLY tracking all opportunities that are released daily from the majority of procurement portals across the UK. We take this information to MANUALLY publish daily bulletins that are not only sector-specific, but specific to your actual service. We do not rely on CPV codes, which ensures no mistake, or irrelevant opportunity will ever be sent. Every opportunity posted by public AND private buyers will be provided to you promptly, clearly and consistently on a specific platform dedicated to your sector.

We currently operate 11 industry-specific platforms including:

We offer free demos with a dedicated Account Manager, who also provides live support with our platforms. However, due to the intuitive and user-friendly design, we guarantee minimal support needed.

screenshot of creative tenders portal
screenshot of creative tenders portal

Customers are guaranteed to have every opportunity at their fingertips, including the value, location and brief description to what’s required. Their procurement practices are effectively improved, eliminating excess time spent on sourcing opportunities and more time on developing their procurement strategies.

However, it doesn’t stop there! Due to our combined knowledge and experience, we also offer Tender Consultancy.This platform supports clients to better understand and maximise procurement practices within their organisation. This includes impartial advice, bid writing, tender training, tender reviews and holistic support with procurement.

We have upcoming systems to support clients EVEN FURTHER in the upcoming years, which include:

Tender VLE

A virtual learning environment dedicated to offering FREE tender and procurement training on a range of educational levels (beginner, intermediate & advanced etc.) all in VIDEO & BLOG format;

Hudson Discover

A one-stop-shop for buyers and suppliers to use an inter-trading platform. This is to identify buying opportunities for our group of subscribers, making our portals more specific to the needs of our customers. This is already in development as per our ways of working above;

Tender Bank

An online platform where customers can obtain multiple documents that will support their tendering efforts, including policies, matrices, methodology templates and written response templates in line with sector-specific objectives;

Procure Smart

A user-friendly collaborative platform for buyers and suppliers where they will be able to upload, communicate and submit tender documents online.

 We are Hudson Procurement Group and we are here to ensure we help suppliers, buyers and the overall economy. We want to maintain access to procurement best practices and most importantly GROW, DEVELOP & STANDOUT!

Why choose Hudson Procurement Group? – I think by now you already know!

New Facebook Business Update – How this affects you?

Posted on by Prashant Swami

New Facebook Business Update – How this affects you?

Can you hear that?

That’s the sound of creative agencies everywhere gasping at the recent news that Mark Zuckerberg wants to make Facebook’s news feed more ‘meaningful’ and ‘personal’.

One of Facebook’s biggest “focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent.”

This is the opening line in Mark’s latest monologue, posted on 11th January, where he states that consumer research has led them to the realisation “that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other”.

With changes already underway as of last year, Mark has promised all Facebook users that within a few months’ time “you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups’ and seeing “less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media”.

Apparently, this research has resulted from various studies carried out, including that on mental health and social media, in which Mark states “when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being […] we can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long-term measures of happiness and health.”

Facebook Business

So, how will you be affected?

The Creative Industry will undoubtedly be hit the hardest, due to many core services being the management of Social Media. Of course, we still have the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. But Facebook, as many will know, is key into retaining new customers and serves a great platform for consumer interactivity. With less and less engagement toward Facebook by the end of 2018, is this the beginning of the end for Facebook targeted ads? Or are prices going to seriously rise in order to pull your content through to your engaged audience? This will become increasingly limited over the next few months!

Although millions of pounds have been spent by companies since Facebook’s ‘target ads’ launched have begun, it seems there will be a massive drop in the amount being spent to garner consumer and business leads through this platform going forward.

Thinking ahead…

Bad news for some businesses and consumers who don’t mind receiving the odd advertisement now and again. Engagement between businesses and audiences will be reaching an eventual all-time low by the end of the year. Mark warns us that time spent on the platform and “some measures of engagement will go down.”

It’s time to get your experts to think ahead on ways in which B2C and B2B engagement can be driven elsewhere. Make sure your strategies for both yourselves and your clients consider this vital update. Facebook goes “from focusing on helping [consumers] find relevant content, to helping [them] have more meaningful social interactions.

John Hudson – In Conversation With (Creative Tenders)

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John Hudson – In Conversation With (Creative Tenders)

Why do you think Creative Tenders was an instant success?

For me the answer is simple.  We created a platform specific to the creative sector that was easy to use, wasn’t complicated like most platforms on the market and we ensured that the product does what it says on the tin.

As a business, we know how to communicate to creatives due to our sector knowledge which helped us to understand the pain points when tendering in the sector and how we should work towards minimising these through the effect build of the product.

What do you see changing in the world of procurement over the next 3 years?

More opportunities for SMEs.  The government have announced they will spend £1 in every £3 with SMEs by 2020. Coming down from £1 in every £5 which is the current standard.  An approximate £15billion will be spent annually with SMEs either directly or through the supply chain.

For this to happen I believe government need to strongly address how they buy and the scoring systems they put in place for purchase to ensure fair procurement processes with a reduction on ‘free pitching’ which is a major bug bear of directors here at Creative Tenders.

What’s your thoughts on the current procurement practices for our government?

Procurement has improved a lot since we started tendering but they still have a very long way to go.  We’re seeing a lot less handshakes and more open procurement processes with sufficient feedback for agencies to improve their tendering next time round. However, we’re still seeing horror stories and wasted pitching which needs to stop.

Feedback is business critical for agencies who tender.  They need to be able to improve to ensure tendering is a viable route to market, so we’re spending some time working with government procurement departments to fly the flag for the sector and to make sure we’re heard as a united voice.

What is your hope for the UKs creative sector?

I hope that we become the world leaders for setting creative design trends, which I believe we’re extremely strong, and that our UK businesses look Internationally for their work.  The perception of the UK design capabilities is fantastic, the US love British design so let’s embrace that and start growing our client base outside of the UK.

You’ve chosen Boston as your first US office, why is this?

Massachusetts is the closest state to the UK, so logistically it is the easiest for our commute.  We’ll need to be in the US a lot over the first 24 months so we need to think about ease of travelling and distance to New York.  We’ve recently attended Inbound in Boston, Hubspot’s event, which has a fantastic community and 20,000 businesses gather to hear what’s new in the world of inbound marketing.

America will be a challenge as there is a lot less structure in America when it comes to procurement, but our product will provide businesses with the much needed process to carefully and correctly select its suppliers.

What’s the future for Creative Tenders?

Creative Tenders has a 15-year business plan.  This business plan evolves every 3 months during our management meeting, but the core goals remain the same, just the delivery behind them evolves as technology and external factors evolve.

First, we’ll crack America and ensure the products we develop for our customers are built with the customer in mind, ensuring our core goal of growing the UKs creative sector remains at the forefront of what we do.

What can agencies expect when working with Creative Tenders?

Great customer service and a product which is easy to use that benefits our buyers.  After attending Inbound and meeting many of the world leading SaaS businesses we believe America leads the way with regards to customer service.  I know it’s a real cliché but I genuinely feel this is how we gain loyalty from our customers.

If you could explain Creative Tenders in 3 words what would you say?

Effective, simple, approachable.

 

Creative Tenders ‘In Conversation with Jill Hudson’ – Creative Tenders Website

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‘In Conversation with Jill Hudson’ –  The founder of the Creative Tenders website

What is your role at Creative Tenders?

My role is quite vast, on a weekly basis I work with agencies who are struggling to see results from their tendering efforts, delivering tender training and tender writing services, as well as driving forward product innovation to ensure our group of businesses are constantly developing.

Why you think the Creative Tenders website was an instant success.

Creative Tenders was our flagship product and I thought about this business whist working in agencies and often thinking ‘there has got to be an easier way to get this information’.  I knew that if I had this trouble thousands of others would too, so I wrote a technical specification for a product which would make my job easier.

Because I knew the industry so well, having worked in it for over 15 years that the product instantly screamed success.  On the day we launched the ‘coming soon’ campaigns the phone literally rang off the hook.  We had 5 staff at the time and they were all on the phone taking calls.  As all phone lines were busy other agencies were messaging us on Facebook and email saying they couldn’t get through and wanted to speak about the product as soon as possible.  I knew then that this product would be a success.

Then when we launched, within minutes’ agencies were signing up.

What do you see changing in the world of procurement over the next 3 years?

Procurement is changing but slowly. With the growing use of technology and technical capabilities procurement portals will hopefully become more user friendly.  Most portals, in my opinion need simplifying to make it easier for agencies to navigate.  I think this is starting to get better for digital agencies with the use of Digital Market Place.

Brexit will play a huge role in procurement changes, even those who don’t realise it, a lot of money spent on creative tendering opportunities has come from Europe, either directly or indirectly so we won’t see any more opportunities which are funded by ERDF or ESF for example.  I believe it will take a while to steady the ship once we leave the EU, so I am hoping and praying that the transition won’t affect SMEs too much.

Lastly, the government plan on spending £1 in every £3 with an SME by 2020, they currently spend £1 in over £5 either directly or through a supply chain. It will be interesting to see the impact Brexit has on this goal.

What’s your thoughts on the current procurement practices of our government?

It’s quite clear that it isn’t 100% right, nor do I believe that the government think it is.  I know it’s very frustrating for our customers that they need to register on many different portals to access tender documents, each system with a completely different interface and user requirements. I won’t be the first to say that this needs to be addressed to move forward procurement in general.

Having tendered for over 15 years, I see the frustrations of our customers and have personally seen some horror stories in regards to client selection processes but all we can do is unite and work with procurement departments to educate them on how much effort we put into our tender documents to ensure fair procurement practices are addressed.

What is your hope for the UKs creative sector?

The sector is flying, there is no doubt about that.  We want our agencies to feel confident stepping outside of their comfort zone and looking at International business.  We’re opening our US office in 2018 to support and encourage buyers to use our UK based creative agencies.  This will be a core focus for us during 2018 and any interested agencies should contact me direct so we can chat about how we will support agencies with this development.

You’ve chosen Boston as your first US office, why is this?

There is a number of reasons really, firstly it’s the shortest flight from the UK now that they’ve opened direct flights from the North, it is also only a short 50-minute flight from New York.  Secondly, we’ve visited Boston attending conferences, events, hosted meetings with businesses and government bodies and we feel the support on offer and the welcoming nature of the business community, that Boston is ideal for us to dip our toe in the water and start making some waves in the US.

What’s the future for the Creative Tenders Website?

The sky’s limit. No really. We’ve made significant progress in the year and a half we’ve been in business. I dare say 90% of all UK agencies know who we are, we have over 500 customers which grows daily and we have an exceptional retention rate for agencies choosing to stay with us year on year.  Now that we’ve launched another 9-sector specific tender portals, we’re working on Hudson Discover which is an online inter-trading portal, allowing businesses to buy and supply directly to one another from our system.

The next 12 months sees us focusing on opening the US office, launching Tender Bank to support agencies through simplifying tendering, ensure Hudson Discover is up and running and operating successfully and generally working hard to double the number of tenders we upload daily.  We’re currently uploading about 10-30 every day, we want to make that a minimum of 50 new opportunities every single day by the end of 2018.

What can agencies expect when working with Creative Tenders?

Consistency.  We will ensure you get your daily bulletins so you don’t miss any opportunities.  We will guarantee that if you log a support query someone will call within 1 working hour maximum, and we ensure our customers that we are constantly flying the flag for the creative sector and encouraging fair procurement practices.

We won’t become stale either, we are constantly in development and constantly generating new products that benefit UK agencies during their tendering journey.

If you could explain Creative Tenders in one sentence what would you say?

An innovative product that ensures timesaving for busy agencies, making it a business-critical tool for agency growth.

 

 

Small Businesses, sick of the Government taking money off you? It’s time to turn the tables….

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Small Businesses, sick of the Government taking money off you? It’s time to turn the tables….

So, we are almost half way through 2017 and everybody, especially small to medium business owners, are struggling to keep up with government decisions. Particularly, how politics has destabilised their playing field with Brexit, General Elections and certain decisions leading to uncertainty in the marketplace.

Such uncertainty is highlighted in the mixed bag of results thrown up by the numerous surveys published since the turn of the year.  For example one survey, Close Brothers Business Barometer, shows that 64% of companies surveyed with a turnover of less that £500k said they were not confident about the UK’s economic outlook for 2017. Whereas, Yahoo Finance highlighted research carried out by the American Express Global SME Pulse, which showed that 50% of UK SME’s surveyed expect to see growth of at least 4% over the year.

Such is the uncertainty for SME’s that, in a poll by funding-provider Liberis, 58% of all SME bosses listed reducing costs as their priority while a mere 39% said that their priority was to expand their business.

What most businesses seem unaware of is that we are fast approaching 2020, the deadline for the government achieving its pledge to spend £1 in every £3 with SME’s.  Whilst most government pledges are met with a shrug of suspicion and disinterest, it would be worth noting that this particular pledge could add up to £15bn worth of business opportunities.

It seems like a scam?

While you may be of the opinion that the halls of Westminster don’t always echo with the sounds of MPs championing the ‘little guy’. In this case there actually is something in it for you. In 2015, the Cabinet Office announced an ambitious new target to get more small businesses working on central government contracts.

In 2013 to 2014, central government spent £11.4bn with small and medium-sized businesses, by 2020, the government wants to increase this by an extra £3bn per year directly or through the supply chain. As part of these targets, the government has improved the way it buys goods and services to help more small businesses bid for public sector contracts, by streamlining the process and making winning business that much easier.

Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock said, “This is such an amazing opportunity for the country’s diverse and innovative small businesses, and today I urge them to get stuck in. From computers to uniforms – there are so many opportunities for small businesses to work with us, and I want to see more of them providing value for money for the taxpayer and benefiting from our spending.”

John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service said, “Further opening up our marketplace to small businesses is good economic sense all round – making it easier for them to access and win government business opportunities, whilst encouraging increased competition and market innovation to deliver best value for the taxpayer.”

But aren’t government contracts notoriously difficult to apply for?

Historically, the process was lengthy and complicated but as Emma Jones, the government’s Crown Representative for SME’s recently blogged, things are a now a whole lot easier and she urges businesses to seize this opportunity to bid for and win government contracts.

She goes on to inform that the Prime Minister announced a review of the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), which will look at how they can increase the initiative’s impact and give more innovators their first break and that they realise that working with small businesses with new ideas generates innovation in government.

So, they do want your goods and services and with the government currently looking for everything from toiletries to tax advice, marketing services to interior design, and with the peace-of-mind that comes from knowing that the government pays suppliers within 30 days, it is time to take advantage.

I’m interested, but I’ve never tendered before, what is my next step?

Now that you know all of these great opportunities are out there but are new to the tendering process, please don’t be put off.  Help is at hand in the form of Hudson Procurement Group who will put in place a bespoke solution to help guide you through the process and also steer you to success in landing contracts.

Through Tender Connect, businesses are able to purchase services from our suppliers on ten sector specific platforms.  It also acts as an inter-trading platform allowing buyers and suppliers to trade with one another creating a sense of community and business collaboration.

Our tender consultancy service, Tender Consultants Ltd, allows you to access the best bid writers in the UK, led by Jill Hudson, a focused and energetic Growth Coach. With over a decade of tender writing experience, and growing both UK and international businesses across a range of sectors, Jill has developed bespoke Tender Ready exercises which allows businesses to either take the first steps into tendering, or improve success rates where they may currently be lacking

We offer Tender Training for companies looking for support with Tendering and one to one coaching that is specific to your business and, due to common requests we’ve had from customers, we’ve launched a Tender Writing service for those businesses who wanted tenders writing on their behalf.

Take the first step, visit Hudson Succeed online or call us on 0203 051 2217 today.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACTS IN THE UK FOR;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

 

Hudson Discover – Coming Soon

Posted on by Prashant Swami

Hudson Discover – Coming Soon

We’re extremely excited about our plans for Hudson Discover.  Those of you who know our business and our business processes will have heard the term Finder.  Our Hudson Discover business will replace this and will do so much more to support the growth of the businesses who use our product. We’re extremely excited about its potential to support the growth of the UK economy.

Hudson Discover is an inter-trading platform that brings together all the buyers and suppliers on all 11 of our tender platforms. For those of you who don’t know our portals these are:

We believe firstly that in today’s digital world geography shouldn’t be a considering factor when choosing a supplier and we also believe that you should be able to find your suppliers in the same place you find your buyers; streamlining the process and adding additional efficiency within your Company’s operations. Hudson Discover allows you to do just that.

Our technical team are hard at work and we aim to launch version 1 in June 2017.   In the meantime, if you’re interested in finding a new supplier, don’t hesitate to register onto the relevant platform above as a buyer and upload your brief, allowing suitable and quality suppliers to bid on your opportunity.

Growth Director, Jill Hudson who has headed up the launch of Hudson Discover said “together we can achieve so much, and our dedicated Hudson Discover team will be driving forward the UKs economy by making is as simple and straightforward as possible to find quality suppliers here in the UK”.

“We’re very fortunate that we’ve recruited well and our team are all working towards the same vision, goals and objectives.  We will be the leading buy and supply platform in the UK” added CEO John.

Creative Tenders hosts all creative contracts in the UK for:

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

Creative Tenders Opens New Office in Manchester

Posted on by Prashant Swami

Creative Tenders Opens New Office in Manchester

Youthful, diverse, energetic and bursting with character; Manchester is one of the most exciting places to visit in the UK right now. With a progressive vision to be a city that delivers surprise and delight in equal measures, where better to execute our expansion plans?

As we continue to grow at an exceptional rate, our prospects and opportunities are endless. With plans to expand overseas into Australia and America, the team are bursting with pride as their efforts and hard work are ensuring our vision appears fully into focus.

“The expansion into Manchester was pretty inevitable for us. We have established such a big client base there and we need to ensure they are serviced efficiently and to full potential” said Growth Director, Jill Hudson. “Manchester is a prime central hub for business, innovation and technology so where better to decide to make our second of many future office developments”

The opening comes on the cusp of the launch of seven brand new platforms for our firm and, as we enjoy our successes, we know there is a sizeable amount of continued hard work to follow.

Our business model is not showing any signs of slowing down in terms of development as we adapt and advance in terms of client wants and needs from our services and offerings.

CEO John Hudson added, “With the success of our current platforms, we couldn’t be more confident that our offerings are fundamental for growth and business prospects for the sectors we are currently working within. Our movement into Manchester reflects this as we move into further markets and continue to naturally progress forward with our exceptional team and consistent pioneering hard work”.

Here at Creative Tenders, we source creative contracts in the UK for:

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

 

 

Why choose Creative Tenders?

Posted on by Prashant Swami

Why choose Creative Tenders?

Mr Tenders vs Mrs Finder

Our system is used by two types of customers, creative agencies and freelancers looking for new business opportunities. Business owners and marketing managers looking to source creative partners will also benefit from Creative Tenders.

How can we help your business grow you might ask? By using Creative Tenders (for agencies and freelancers) or by using Creative Finder (to source creative partners).

Here’s how….

Mr Tenders vs Mrs Finder

Mr Tenders will…

 

  • Source creative only tenders, minimising the time needed to search for tenders
  • Work with his team who has decades of creative sector experience
  • Provide a time saving solution for business development teams
  • Provide a dedicated account manager to make sure you don’t miss out
  • Set up cold calling campaigns to generate unique opportunities for our subscribers
  • Grow his team who are currently operating UK wide with a clear international strategy
  • Create an ideal solution that works for both growing UK agencies and freelancers

 

Mrs Finder will…

 

  • Give you access to our ‘free to use’ system for unlimited invitation to quotes
  • Help you write your creative and digital specifications
  • Ensure your opportunities are seen by hundreds of relevant freelancers and agencies
  • Take the legwork out of securing competitive quotes
  • Ensure our system is an easy to use online solution
  • Allow agencies to respond via our system, reducing the amount of emails you receive
  • Provide you with a dedicated account manager with over 10 years’ industry experience

Don’t waste your valuable time searching for tender opportunities and suppliers….we’ve got them all in one place.  Sign up today at www.creativetenders.co.uk

Tel: 0203 051 2217